An ever-increasing number of applications (i.e., computer software) with various features are available to users of personal computers. Users can tailor the operation of these applications to suit their needs by specifying various configuration parameters. For example, a browser application may have a configuration parameter that provides a URL of a web page that is displayed initially whenever the browser application starts (i.e., “a home page”). The browser application may also have configuration parameters that identify programs to be invoked to process certain types of content (e.g., a “jpeg” file) and that specify passwords to be used when the application connects to various servers. The values of the configuration parameters can be stored in application-specific configuration files such as UNIX resource files or in a central registry such as the Windows® registry file. The application-specific configuration file for an application may have an internal format that is specific to that application. With a central registry, many different applications can share the same configuration parameters. The applications access these files to retrieve the values of their configuration parameters.
If certain configuration parameters have incorrect values, then the applications may exhibit an undesired behavior. For example, if the value of a home page configuration parameter is not set correctly, then when the browser application starts, it will exhibit an undesired behavior by not displaying a home page or displaying the wrong home page. If a configuration parameter incorrectly indicates a certain text editor should be invoked to process a graphics file, then the undesired behavior will be the incorrect display of the graphics content.
Because of the complexity of applications and their large number of configuration parameters, it can be very time-consuming to troubleshoot which configuration parameters are at fault for causing an application to exhibit the undesired behavior. Most users of personal computers have difficulty performing this troubleshooting. As a result, users typically rely on technical support personnel to assist in the troubleshooting. This troubleshooting not only is expensive but also users may experience a significant productivity loss as a result of their inability to effectively use an application that is exhibiting an undesired behavior.
Typically, technical support personnel use an ad hoc approach to troubleshooting configuration problems. Because some central registries store over 200,000 configuration parameters and some computer systems have over 100,000 files, the personnel using knowledge gained from experiencing similar problems will try to narrow in on the at-fault configuration parameter. This ad hoc approach can take a considerable amount of time and even longer if it is a combination of configuration parameters whose values are incorrect. In some cases, the technical support personnel may compare the values of the configuration parameters to “ideal” values for that application. It can be very difficult to identify the configuration parameters used by an application, and this identification requires application-specific knowledge. Moreover, because of the large number of configuration parameters available and the large number of possible values for each configuration parameter, many of the configuration parameters will have no “ideal” value. Thus, technical support personnel still need to review those values of the application that are different from the ideal values.
It would be desirable to automatically identify a configuration parameter that is at fault for causing an application to exhibit an undesired behavior. It would also be desirable, after such a configuration parameter is identified, to identify an appropriate value for that configuration parameter.